I mean check out the king of Poland in the 1066 start. Starting as a king you can sometimes get tossed into a pretty wild situation right off the bat. The advantage counts have over kings is that since you are developing your kingdom as you go it is a lot easier to set things up so your vassels aren't as big a pain, your personal demanse is easier to build up the way you want, and generally speaking once you get to the point that you can wear the fancy hat you're pretty well set up. Counts need to claw their way to the top on the backs of everyone around them while Kings need to try to manage a bunch of uppity vassels. Personally I find Counts and Kings to be the most challenging 'levels' to play at. He's probably not the hardest start, but with autonomous vassels, Dukes who hate him and have bigger armies, the Moors at the gates, two sons with Gavelkind succession, a single county in his personal demanse, and being the youngest of all the Karlings he's in an interesting spot. Victor Vran is an ever-changing dungeon that offers randomized daily challenges for veteran demon hunters. In the past couple weeks I just started mucking about on Youtube and decided to take a crack at a CKII lets play so I started in the 868 start as Louis the Stammerer of Aquitaine. Launch CK2 and select the mod in the Mod tab.
Count games can be fun, but depending on who you're playing as king it can be a fun challenge too.
